Buddy Wheatley, former Covington fire chief, is an attorney with Cook & Logothetis who represents the Covington, Newport and Kentucky Professional Firefighters.

Firefighters don't like to complain about the everyday dangerous work they do. They figure "that's what we get paid for, so no use making a fuss about it." For the most part, standards, training, pre-planning and experience guide that routine work. Going into a burning building, swift water rescue maneuvers, frozen lake rescues, hazardous materials spills, bomb mitigation – all are rather routine for urban/suburban firefighters.

But then there's emergency response to the Brent Spence Bridge. Nothing is routine. Water looms 75 feet below. There is no berm, no pull-off area to work from. Anxiety builds as fire trucks attempt to access the scene. Response is delayed whether emergency vehicles attempt to squeeze by jammed-up traffic from the rear of the accident or police block all four lanes to allow access from the front of the accident scene. Police officers face tremendous risks in bringing high-speed traffic to a complete halt. And that's all before anyone makes contact with a crash-scene victim.

About 25 emergency responders from Covington, Newport and Fort Wright faced all of the above extreme hazards when they responded to the multivehicle crash scene Saturday. Like any emergency response to that bridge, it was far from routine. The accident scene included a half-dozen victims, including those in upper-deck vehicles who needed extrication and those in the car that caromed over the wall and fell 25 feet onto the lower deck below. Thankfully and amazingly, no one was seriously injured.

To this day, I consider responses to that bridge the most dangerous work I did in 20 years as a Covington firefighter. There's no way to get hands-on training that emulates an emergency response on the Brent Spence.

The Covington Fire Department has, over the years, adapted its response to the bridge based on available equipment and manpower. Saturday's accident stripped the city of every piece of emergency equipment from downtown to Company Eight on Church Street in Latonia.

Consider this: Covington police respond to an average of 650 accidents, disabled vehicles and other issues on the bridge each year. These responses are not only a great risk to emergency personnel, they also put high demands on Covington's and surrounding cities' emergency resources, leaving a significant portion of Northern Kentucky's river cities residents in jeopardy of delayed responses.

It seems that political leaders and others mention the dangers to emergency responders almost in passing when they speak of reasons why the Brent Spence Bridge needs to be replaced. I think it should be the primary reason for taking immediate action on the bridge.

State transportation officials have said motorists are three to five times more likely to have a wreck along the Brent Spence Bridge corridor than any other section of interstate in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana. One – perhaps more – of our emergency responders will be seriously injured or killed working an accident on the bridge if conditions aren't improved. To me, that's reason No. 1 why the bridge needs immediate replacement. ■